Winter Break of 2014 was a huge month for film. The content was vast with a revamp of a children’s classic, a Sondheim musical, a banned film, paintings, and broken records.
The opening of Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” topped records for any Martin Luther King Jr. Day release with $105.3 million.
This topples Eastwood’s previous film opening “Gran Torino”, back in 2008, with $29.5 million. “American Sniper” has received soaring reviews but also has been met with some controversy throughout the world.
Overshadowed by “American Sniper”, actor Johnny Depp’s film “Mortdecai”, directed by David Koepp, received only $4 million for its opening weekend.
Christmas weekend ended with the final installment of Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” leading the box office with $54.5 million.
Following in second place was the World War II epic directed by Angelina Jolie titled “Unbroken” with $47.3 million.
Closely behind “Unbroken” was the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s stage musical “Into the Woods”, produced by Walt Disney Studios and directed by Rob Marshall. “Into the Woods” ended the box office Christmas weekend with $46.1 million, replacing the “Mamma Mia” record for biggest broadway to screen musical adaptation.
Fourth place was held by “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” with $20.6 million and the reboot of “Annie” took fifth place with $16.6 million.
“The Interview” film takes notice as making $15 million through online services following Sony’s decision to not release the film to theaters across the United States after the threat of North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.
Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes” may have been the director’s most sincere work since “Big Fish” back in 2003, but this did not give audiences too much of a reason to visit the theaters and the film ended its opening weekend with a humble $4.4 million.
Winter of 2014 proved to be a great season of films and it opened the way for an impressive start to the 2015 year.